Swedish writers to this year’s Krokodil festival

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Created: Thursday, 11 June 2015 14:28

The literary festival Krokodil is back for the sixth time, this time under the theme ’Centers of Periphery’ where they will examine the relation between the center and the margins, in the physical, poetic, and political sense.

This year Krokodil has also teamed up with the prominent Littfest, Sweden’s biggest literary festival, and will together with them present literature from periphery parts of the European continent - from Balkan in the south, to the far north of Umeå in Sweden. As a part of this collaboration Krokodil will this year host a number of interesting Swedish authors.

World-renowned Swedish writer

Among the guests will be Umeå-based writer Pernilla Berglund who made her debut in 2013 with her poetry collection Tilltar. The book got a great reception and was nominated for Borås newspapers’ best new writer the same year. In 2015 she released her second poetry collection Fälla (Trap). Pernilla has studied literary composition, has a master degree in comparative literature and works as an editor for the literary magazine Provins.

Mikael Berglund grew up in Northern Sweden and studied to become a social worker. Besides his engagement working with socially marginalized people in Umeå he also has his own Design and Communication company. He began writing in 2011 and his first book “Ett föremåls berättelse om obesvar” was released in February 2015 and has received great reviews and a lot of attention. The book takes place in Northern Sweden during the 17th century and follows Judith, a young woman who leaves her village and escapes into the mountains.

Steve-Sem Sandberg is one of Sweden’s most famous contemporary writers. He made his debut in 1976 when he was only 18 years old and his big international breakthrough came with his book “The emperor of lies” that was awarded Book of the year in Sweden 2009. The book has been translated into more than 25 languages and received several international literary awards and tells the life of the Lodz ghetto and its leader Chaim Rumkowski in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Apart from writing novels, Sandberg also writes essays, documentary reports and dramas for radio, translates books by other authors and works as a literary critic for one of Sweden’s biggest newspapers.

Pernilla, Mikael and Steve will also participate in the panel debates on Saturday. Among them will also be the publisher Per Bergström who will be one of the moderators during the discussions.

Krokodil will be he held at the plateau in front of the Museum of Yugoslav History on June 12 and 13. Entrance is free of charge.